Contaminados
Airplanes (vulnerability induced)
Blancus (2014) At Art Lab Gallery Santurce, Puerto Rico
Saturday, December 27, 2025
Welcome
Welcome,
This blog serves the purpose to show and share my fine art photography work. Below there is a list with each series of work. Use each title to access each post. In each post you will find an artist statement (maybe in Spanish {sorry})or a thought about my work, plus some documentation regarding each work. Enjoy.
Diasporican Blueprint
The Diasporican Blueprint
The Diasporican Blueprint, book and single pieces, pursuit the conspiracy idea and the thought that the displacement of Puerto Rican from the Island to the United States has been planed as to reach amongst other things low wage well trained and educated workforce. Under this circumstances Puerto Rican has create in each city spaces in which they can preserve their heritage while fight assimilation. Amongst the way the diaspora member recognized themselves under the idea to be Puerto Rican is in the way they used their most proudly sign. The Flag.
When I arrived to Chicago embraced by the Puerto Ricans at Humboldt Park and Hermosa neighborhood I was amazed on how proudly second, third, and fourth Puerto Rican generation members proudly wore the flag as freely as they can, something that at motherland doesn't happen, and sometimes is not well seeing. Maybe because the mid twenty century flag show prohibition at the Island, or because we as Puerto Rican.
However, the process of ethnic identification and difference awareness could bring to the table a method of control and segregation used by authorities and leaders. Then proudly objects becomes a way to advertise the difference, racism and misfortune under a exchange of meanings and significance of the signifier, i.e. the flag.
Cyanotype as a medium is used as an architectural metaphor of a well design planed of population displacement. The head works as a support of the heritage commodity advertised by the dominant forces of populism and ideology.
This work belongs to the creative research that I started on the series "Showcase".
Monday, March 31, 2025
Showcase
Showcase/Vitrina (work in progress)
This work explores how the culture of consumption is shaped by the marketing of cultural symbols. Since my arrival in Chicago in 2022 for an artist residency at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, I have become increasingly aware of how the polarized Puerto Rican community uses patriotic symbols to promote their identity. The Puerto Rican flag, as a symbol of identity, is commodified and transformed into objects of consumption that represent and celebrate the homeland.
The flag’s meaning undergoes a liquefying process, evolving into a retail product. The symbol is used as a method of differentiation, more so than as a reference to daily life. Everyday objects, such as keychains, t-shirts, and headbands, among others, are sold as markers of Puerto Rican identity. This transformation highlights how cultural symbols are re-contextualized to fit the demands of consumerism.
In the broader American context, I also observe that the process of commodifying cultural symbols is not much different. Each season, a flood of seasonal items fills discount stores, with marketing campaigns ramping up months before. The seasonal items are sold with the idea of how to dress "culturally" for the occasion, framing culture itself as a commodity.
My work engages with this socioeconomic process by examining American culture through the lens of well-worn mannequin heads. Since 2022, I have designed costumes for these mannequins using seasonal items purchased from discount stores, capturing them with bespoke studio lighting. This dramatic aesthetic underscores both the marketing process and the critical issue of cultural appropriation, highlighting the tensions between culture and consumerism.
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